'The Walking Dead' Season 3 Photo with Danai Gurira as Michonne!

The Walking Dead recently started production on Season 3 in Atlanta, giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse from the set earlier this week. Today we have our first real (unhooded) look at new character Michonne, portrayed by Danai Gurira, a fan favorite from the comic book. Check out the photo, then read on to see what executive producer Robert Kirkman had to say about this sword-wielding, zombie-slaying badass.

Robert Kirkman, who created the comic book this show is based on, talked about the differences between the Michonne in the comics and in the series.

"The essence of the character - her personality, her motives, everything that makes Michonne Michonne - remains intact from the comics. But like a lot of things on the show, there will be little tweaks and differences here and there. We saw that her introduction is slightly different from how it was in the comic, and her interaction with Andrea is really going to be a really cool addition to the character that I think will get television viewers up to speed, and they'll get to know her a lot faster than comic book readers did."

The executive producer also spoke about hiring Danai Gurira, who is best known for playing Jill on HBO's Treme.

"We looked at a lot of talented people that were really fantastic, but we were waiting for that one spark, that moment where everyone was completely in agreement and completely excited, and we felt like we had found the essence of this fictional character that just randomly appeared in another person, and that person was Danai Gurira. She kind of came in and really just blew us all away. She's got incredible presence, and she's got a theater background, and is very physical, and was just perfect for the role."

He also talked about the massive prison set they are using as a primary location in Season 3.

"It looks absolutely amazing. They are shooting the hell out of this prison. It just looks absolutely stunning, and I think when people start seeing trailers and stuff for this season, I think people are just gonna be like, 'Wait, what? This is what? I can't believe this is a TV show!' It's really creepy, really moody and it's just gonna be really awesome."